She Listens

She Listens, acrylic, 40 x 30



 

She Listens, has come back from the photographer and Giclee prints are available on paper and canvas.  My printer does a wonderful job and the prints on canvas look just like the original painting (without all the cost). The prints on paper are a very reasonable alternative.

You can find this Giclee and others on my website.  You do know I have a website, right?

my website

my Giclee page


She Listens is available $2,800.


Vacation! 1 more chance to enter

25 of the 30

 

The final post to the 30 day challenge is a collage of paintings.  I picked 25 I wanted to highlight.  If you would like to learn how to make this collage and see the other collages  Leslie Saeta gives instructions in her post today.

 

 

Some of my small early oils, now dry went to the Key West Art Center yesterday.

Smathers Beach and Blue Lagoon framed
at the Key West Art Center
 

Don't they look polished in the plein air frames?

 

I guess this gives you one more chance to enter for the give away.  I will draw the name tomorrow.  But as the title of this post says,

 I am going on vacation!

 

I will announce the winner, then you probably won't hear from me for a while.  Winning pic will probably ship when I return.

I am having a give-away!

Here is how it works.  Leave a comment on my post and you will be entered to win.  I am going to give away one painting a week for the duration of the 30 Day Challenge, (the month of September, 2013). If you comment daily on my posts then you can be entered up to 7 times to win.  The winner will have their choice of any unsold painting of the week. 

Those of you who subscribe by e-mail to this blog can either reply to the e-mail, or comment and you will be entered.

Please note this drawing is going to be casual.  I am not hiring any fancy auditing company to do the selection.  It is going to be a plain old pieces of paper in a bowl thing.

If you are the winner your painting will be shipped to you after it has dried, which can take one to two weeks with oils

To see more of the challenge paintings click here.

Bucketful of shells, day 22, 30 day challenge

 

This is a very long winded post, and if you are like me and don't like long winded posts, feel free to just look at the pictures. There are lots of those too.

 

 

 

 

I was so annoyed with myself yesterday that I couldn't even talk about it.  I did the above sketches and put black wavy lines around the edge to remind myself not to put any elements there because when these small paintings are in mats, the mats cover the edges.

 

So what did I do?  I put some elements like shells and beautiful pattern on the edges that the mat covered up.  So for yesterday's painting I ended up painting another piece of paper and mounted the painting to the second piece of paper.  Maybe the next time I will remember.

 

Bucketful of Shells, 10" by 8", acrylic and ink on paper
day 21, 30 day challenge
$45.00 ©Maggie Ruley 2013

When I first started putting color to these black and white sketches I wasn't happy, they were looking very much like coloring book pages.  But once the layering and pattern started to go in they really perked up and became richer in feel.  I love that pattern on the edge and to hide it was heart breaking.

 

Bucketful of shells 2, 9 x 6", acrylic and ink on paper
day 22, 30 day challenge
$25 no mat, ©Maggie Ruley 2013

 

The next annoying thing that happened is that the paper size for the second painting was too big.  I neglected to check the measurement when I started painting.  The image below shows how much of the image a standard size mat covers up.  Not Good.   I am not going through the painting and mounting process again so it is sold without a mat.  But it would be totally cute just hanging from a little clip somewhere as a touch of whimsy.

 

 

Look how much the mat covers up.

 

 

 

DRUM ROLL PLEASE 

 

AND THE WINNER OF THIS WEEK'S DRAWING IS

 

MAGGIE LATHAM!

 

Congrats Maggie, you have your choice of one of the above paintings. I did make a few prints of 906 Sea Breeze Lane, if you would rather one of those. 

 For those of you who don't know, Maggie is a watercolor artist who used to live in that house and she suggested I paint it. She is also participating in the challenge. See her entries here.

906 Sea Breeze Lane

 

 

There is one more week left in the 30 day challenge and one more drawing.  I want to thank everyone for their fun and thoughtful comments.  Once again here is the info on how to participate in the drawing and see what the other challenge artists are painting.

I am having a give-away!

Here is how it works.  Leave a comment on my post and you will be entered to win.  I am going to give away one painting a week for the duration of the 30 Day Challenge, (the month of September, 2013). If you comment daily on my posts then you can be entered up to 7 times to win.  The winner will have their choice of any unsold painting of the week. 

Those of you who subscribe by e-mail to this blog can either reply to the e-mail, or comment and you will be entered.

Please note this drawing is going to be casual.  I am not hiring any fancy auditing company to do the selection.  It is going to be a plain old pieces of paper in a bowl thing.

If you are the winner your painting will be shipped to you after it has dried, which can take one to two weeks with oils

To see more of the challenge paintings click here.

sketches for the future, day 18 30 day challenge

sketches for next painting, markers and ink on Bristol paper
day 18, 30 day challenge
©2013 Maggie Ruley

I keep thinking about  that umbrella with the hearts on it.  So here are some quick sketches to work out a composition with that umbrella before I break out the canvas. Each one I did I made some changes. I moved the handle on the bucket, I added shells to the bucket, I changed line thickness and worked with different pens and markers.  The one with the old fashion pen was my last one.  The lines around the edges remind me to not put my main elements to close to the edge of the painting, which is a very bad habit of mine.  I think it is okay for an object to go off to the side, but I don't like something that is in the painting to be too close to the edge, hard to explain and it is just a personal preference if mine.

 

I don't know if I will go back and color to these or not.  If I do I'll add the photo later.

I am having a give-away!

Here is how it works.  Leave a comment on my post and you will be entered to win.  I am going to give away one painting a week for the duration of the 30 Day Challenge, (the month of September, 2013). If you comment daily on my posts then you can be entered up to 7 times to win.  The winner will have their choice of any unsold painting of the week. 

Those of you who subscribe by e-mail to this blog can either reply to the e-mail, or comment and you will be entered.

Please note this drawing is going to be casual.  I am not hiring any fancy auditing company to do the selection.  It is going to be a plain old pieces of paper in a bowl thing.

If you are the winner your painting will be shipped to you after it has dried, which can take one to two weeks with oils

 

To see more of the challenge paintings click here.



Side by Side, day 17 , 30 day challenge

Side by Side, 8 x 10 acrylic and India ink on paper
day 17, 30 day challenge
$SOLD©2013 Maggie Ruley



In the painting below I wasn't happy with my placement of the horizon. So here is my second version.  I like the horizon line much better here, but the shadows are a tad dark in the foreground.  It's always something.  However, I do see possibilities for a larger work.

In the above version I also broke out the hand pens and India Ink, instead of the squeeze bottle I used yesterday.  I really need to invest in some good markers.  What ones do you like?

The above painting is day 17 of the 30 day challenge to see more paintings in the challenge click here.

My painting give away continues.

 

Day 16's painting

I am having a give-away!

Here is how it works.  Leave a comment on my post and you will be entered to win.  I am going to give away one painting a week for the duration of the 30 Day Challenge, (the month of September, 2013). If you comment daily on my posts then you can be entered up to 7 times to win.  The winner will have their choice of any unsold painting of the week. 

Those of you who subscribe by e-mail to this blog can either reply to the e-mail, or comment and you will be entered.

Please note this drawing is going to be casual.  I am not hiring any fancy auditing company to do the selection.  It is going to be a plain old pieces of paper in a bowl thing.

If you are the winner your painting will be shipped to you after it has dried, which can take one to two weeks with oils

The voice of the sea speaks to the soul

She Listens, 40 x 30 ", acrylic on canvas
$3,800  prints available
©2013 Maggie Ruley

 

This large painting has consumed most of my time for the last two weeks.  I haven't discussed it much in the blog because of the painting challenge.  I felt a good way to bring it into the discussion would be to do a smaller but different version.  The painting above is in the portrait format (vertical) so I thought it might be nice to do a landscape format (horizontal)

 

The voice of the sea, 8 x 10" acrylic on paper
day 16, 30 day challenge
NFS ©2013 Maggie Ruley

 

If you would like to see more of the 30 day challenge paintings click here.

 

I would like to do a larger version of the above painting because I think I could get lots of wonderful pattern and texture in different places, or it could be just as simple as the heart umbrella and the bucket,  but no that would be vertical again. (I really do love that heart umbrella)  However, I would not have the horizon line in the middle of the painting as seen here.  That is one of my pet peeves in painting and I don't know what I was thinking when I was designing this painting.  The answer is, I wasn't thinking.

The quote is by Kate Chopin from a lovely story called "The Awakening".  I like to sum it up as a story about a woman who learns how to swim, but it is so much more.

 

I usually finish my painting with edging strips, but this time I spent 2 days painting the edges and it was so worth it.  It takes the painting to a whole different level.

 

My painting give away continues.

 

 

I am having a give-away!

Here is how it works.  Leave a comment on my post and you will be entered to win.  I am going to give away one painting a week for the duration of the 30 Day Challenge, (the month of September, 2013). If you comment daily on my posts then you can be entered up to 7 times to win.  The winner will have their choice of any unsold painting of the week. 

Those of you who subscribe by e-mail to this blog can either reply to the e-mail, or comment and you will be entered.

Please note this drawing is going to be casual.  I am not hiring any fancy auditing company to do the selection.  It is going to be a plain old pieces of paper in a bowl thing.

If you are the winner your painting will be shipped to you after it has dried, which can take one to two weeks with oils